Qualitative Research Ethics: Ensuring human subject protection in qualitative

Scenario: You have been requested by the Institutional Review Board to justify your study using a qualitative research design.  You have selected 2 focus groups with 12 participants in each of the two groups.  

Address how you will protect the human subject participants in your study.  Consider the following issues:

 1) informed consent,

2) voluntary participation,

3) confidentiality,

4) mitigation of risks,

5) maintenance and security of all data and materials,

6) use of audio/video,

7) participant’s right to drop out of study, and

8) deception/coercion.